// Curtin University has launched a Cryptocurrency PhD Scholarship Fund, which will enable donations in cryptocurrency to fund PhD students…
You may have been hearing less about BitCoin since its spectacular price boom and crash in 2017, but the cryptocurrency is slowly becoming part of an emerging mainstream.
You can buy coffee with it in Freo, and now contribute towards the cost of a PhD from Curtin University.
The move shows Curtin’s readiness to engage with disruptive technologies, along with people outside the university system who understand cryptocurrency.
Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research Excellence at Curtin University Professor Garry Allison told Startup News that this move provides an opportunity for people in cryptocurrency to synergise with an agile and dynamic university.
“People who have made money in cryptocurrency and blockchain may see people like who they were when they were an undergraduate, who weren’t winning scholarships to cure cancer,” said Professor Allison.
“But now they’re in a position to provide a scholarship.”
Professor Garry Allison
Market Drive For Crypto
As Curtin continues to move towards more demand driven industry PhD’s with companies of all sizes, it hopes to capture the nuances of a new type of generation; one that talks and trades cryptocurrency.
The option also provides new ways for philanthropists and potential philanthropists to engage with Curtin.
Old money tended to come from the big companies, wills, and mum and dad investors, but people who’ve made money in crypto can now invest in an institution through a structured and streamlined process.
“We’re picking up the idea that investors don’t have to go to the bank, convert the money, write a cheque, then give it to us. We just go through a blockchain process. Essentially one less step in philanthropy.”
Professor Garry Allison
Introducing the capability for crypto is also a cultural recognition that Curtin is the place where this type of tech and research is happening, and the mindset is dynamic and agile.
Many of the PhDs’ work will naturally be in the data science, cyber security, mathematics and others which underlie or support technologies like blockchain.
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Main Image: Pixabay from Pexels. Curtin University is a sponsor of Startup News.
